Eileen Naughton, Head, Human Resource at Google will be stepping down from her post soon this year owing to the growing activism from the company’s employees.
The Verge quoted Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Google and Alphabet “We’re grateful to Eileen for all she’s done and look forward to her next chapter at Google”.
In the past year, Google faced a lot of criticism on accounts of firing its employees when they raised their voice against the unfair practices they noticed in the company.
Activism from employees within Google has increased after reports surfaced wherein it was said that Google is offering multi-million dollar compensation to the employees who were accused of engaging in any and all inappropriate sexual relationships.
Naughton bought a new system in Google so it will be easier for the employees to report any misconduct. She also introduced a program wherein the victim can not only bring a buddy/ co-worker to file the complaint to the HR but also during the inquiry process of the incident for support.
When Google faced criticism by temporary employees and many vendors of how they do not get benefits in the U. S. which are enjoyed by full-time employees. For this, Naughton implemented many new standards which included a minimum wage of $15 along with healthcare and parental leaves.
However, despite her constant efforts, Google’s issues did not go away, as both former and existing employees of the company took it to social media and online publication platforms like Twitter and Medium to raise their concerns.
There was a point when Google saw nearly 20,000 of its employees staging a walkout which lasted for several hours. A lot of Google’s employees allege the company that it resorted to retaliation against those employees who reported the issue in their workplace.
Having said that, Google has made a statement saying that under Naughton’s tenure as the head of HR in Google, the number of employees in Google went upwards, and the growth was significant, to say the least.
Pichai said, “Over the past 13 years, Eileen has made major contributions to the company in numerous areas, from media partnerships to leading our sales and operations in the UK and Ireland, to leading our People Operations team through a period of significant growth — during which over 70,000 people started their careers at Google”.
Additionally, it was reported that under Naughton’s leadership Google’s workforce on a global level increased by over 65%, making its workforce tally reach 1,19,000. This is more than the population of Gangtok, Sikkim, according to Census 2011.
Naughton will not be leaving the company, however, her new role in Google is still not announced, but it is being said that she will remain in Mountain View, California, US, i.e. Google’s US Headquarters.
However, according to The Verge, Naughton has said that the reason she is stepping down from the post of Chief of HR at Google is that she want to be closer to her family.
